Biathlete Marc Andre Bedard shook off the cobwebs on the second day of IBU Cup 7 at the Canmore Nordic Centre to crack the top 20 after not challenging international competition since January.
Bedard finished 19th (26:04.9) on Sunday (Mar. 1) in the 10-kilometre sprint race while shooting 9/10 on the range after the previous day where he was upset with his “terrible” skiing and a 21st-place finish.
Pleased with his performance, the bearded 29-year-old brushed the frost from his whiskers after the chilly morning race and spoke on his improved day.
“I needed yesterday (Feb. 28) to get the toxins out,” said Bedard at the finish line. “I’m just happy that I’m able to race at that level still ‘cause I’ve been training full-time, but in a totally different way. I couldn’t say that the coaches in general are super excited about this. I haven’t been training with the national team at all for over a year now. I’m just coming in and getting my shape up.”
Germany’s Florian Graf shot flawlessly during Sunday’s race and claimed the top spot in 24:36.1 while his countryman Christoph Stephen won bronze. France’s Antonin Guigonnat won silver in 24:58.6.
Team Canada’s other male biathletes all finished outside of the top 20 over the weekend. Scott Davies placed in the top 25 in both races, finishing 23rd on Sunday and 25th on Saturday. Macx Davies was 42nd and 23rd, Mathew Neumann 34th and 43rd, Mathew Hudec 36th and 40th and Andrew Chisholm was 40th and 46th.
Neumann, 25, broke one of his ski poles in Saturday’s race and shot 6/10 on the range. He said it was one of those days where it was “definitely a grind” on the course.
“I think I didn’t have enough anger in the range and focus,” he said. “And I was involved too much in the results and not enough in what I had to do in my own process.”
Neumann improved the next day, shooting 8/10 and trimming over a minute and 15 seconds from his time of a day earlier.
Chris Lindsay, the high performance director for Biathlon Canada, was “a little disappointed with the overall ski speed” shown by male biathletes over the weekend. He said expectations are “quite high” for the group.
“We saw them tighten it up a little bit today (Mar. 1), but I still think there’s space for them within this field … so even though we haven’t seen men in the rankings, the performances are looking good and I think with two races under our belt now, and going into the individual where we know we can outshoot the rest of the field, I think the results are going to be good,” Lindsay said.
This Friday and Saturday starting at 10 a.m., IBU Cup 8 kicks off and biathletes are set to compete in sprints and a mixed relay at the Canmore Nordic Centre.
